The Secret Santa Mystery
by Kei Eich Elen
Summary: After waking up from a nightmare, Luffy frantically declares Secret Santa among the crew. What is the reason behind his oddly grim request? And what are the Secret Santa pairings?
1. The Scream, The Call, and The First Clue

This story basically follows the Straw Hats during their game of Secret Santa. I wrote it so that someone reading it can try and guess who has who, but if you don't want to, following the story's just fine. At the same time, there's a bigger mystery about why Luffy is acting strangely after a certain nightmare. No pairings or anything and no violence.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or its characters, Eiichiro Oda does.

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><p><strong>The Scream, the Declaration, and the First Clue<strong>

A scream jerked the members of the crew awake in the sleeping quarters. A few seconds passed by filled with the crew's heavy breathing and the confused turning of heads.

"Hey, is everything OK?" came Zoro's voice from the lookout post.

"Who...?" Nami said, wiping sweat from her forehead.

"Ah..."

Everyone turned towards Luffy who was sitting upright with a wide-eyed, almost shocked look on his face.

"Ah..." He uttered again.

"What is it Luffy?" Chopper asked.

Suddenly, the captain leaped off his hammock and smacked on his signature straw hat.

"Get Zoro in here!" He commanded, jabbing his finger towards the snowy landscape outside. "I have something I need to tell you guys."

"We're doing Secret Santa!" Luffy declared before the crew.

"What?" They shouted.

They were so sure that their captain's message would be something serious that this nonchalant proclamation caught them all off guard. It was true that there would be nearly a month's time before they reached the next island, and it would be a week until Christmas, but the idea of Secret Santa among the crew members seemed ridiculous to some of them. And what did this have to do with Luffy's scream?

"I thought you were going to say something about why you woke us all up screaming?" Sanji asked, voicing the question that the rest of the crew had in mind.

It was 2 o' clock in the morning and Luffy had called a meeting in the sleeping room. He stood at the back, a little too energetic for Chopper, Nami, Zoro, and Usopp, who would be ready to go back to sleep if it weren't for their curiosity/concern.

A shadow crossed Luffy's face for a moment, but it was quickly replaced by a teasing grin.

"Oh that was nothing," He reassured them, waving his hand. "What's important now, is that we _have _to do Secret Santa. We just have to! I can't explain now, but I promise I'll tell you guys after we're done!"

The crew just stared at him.

"Alright! Let's get started!" Luffy cheered. "Nami, get some paper and write our names on them so we can draw for names!"

"Wait... Luffy I don't understand-" Franky started to say.

"I need you all to trust me on this," Luffy interrupted seriously.

"You're all getting so tense over something like Secret Santa," Zoro said, crossing his arms. "If Luffy says he'll tell us later, he'll tell us later."

So eventually, the entire crew agreed to participate in Luffy's oddly grim request for Secret Santa.

Sanji crossed his fingers, secretly hoping to get Nami or Robin. He sifted the tightly folded-up slips of paper through his fingers. Ignoring Zoro's impatient foot tapping, he finally settled on a piece. Gripping the paper firmly in his fist, he slowed pulled his hand out of the hat and began unwrapping it. With each fold, he prayed (to no one in particular) that he would get one of the two girls. Unfortunately, he forgot to pray for something else...

There was silence after the drawing. Members glanced around with masks of blankness since Luffy had strictly forbid anyone to hint who they got, claiming it would be less fun.

"OK everyone," Luffy addressed, standing up. Ever since he had woken up, there seemed to be something wrong with him, and every crew member noticed. It was like he had been putting on a show of innocence, like every smile or laugh was forced. There was definitely something bothering him. "Get your presents ready, and on Christmas, we'll have a huge party!"

He put on another one of those fake grins and it tugged at the very heartstrings of the crew. But they had made a silent agreement to trust their captain and wait it out. At the same time, an unusually lax little adventure was about to unfold itself on their home-ship.

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><p>With each chapter I'll add more clues about the pairings and show more and more about what happened to Luffy. In the final chapter, everything will be revealed so don't worry.<p> 


	2. More Hints and The Females' Theory

**More Hints and The Females' Theory**

"NO STEALING FOOD LUFFY!"

Two seconds later, Luffy flew out the kitchen door and crashed into the lawn/main deck below.

"I'm hungry..." Luffy whined, disturbing even Zoro in his training rooms above while his stomach growled almost as loudly.

"Jeez Luffy! We had breakfast thirty minutes ago!" Nami, who was relaxing on the snowy decks, scolded.

The last few days were typical mid-winter days. The free-falling, soft snow created a sort of vastness that subtly calmed the busy minds of the crew. The crunching of footsteps, bundling wool sweaters and frosty "winter breath" added to the wonderland scheme.

It had seemed like the events in the early morning had never happened. No one said anything about Secret Santa again, and Luffy's attitude seemed to return to normal, to the relief of the crew members. All this and the blurriness of something that happened in the middle of the night tempted Usopp to ask someone if it had all even happened. Feeling a bit sheepish, Usopp leaned over to Brooke who was fishing beside him.

"Hey Brooke. Uh..." He tried to phrase it so that it wouldn't make him look _too _ridiculous. "I had a really bad sleep last night, didn't you?"

"Of course. Considering the events of the morning," The skeleton replied.

Usopp sighed in relief. So he wasn't imagining things. In a quieter tone, he continued,

"So why do you think Luffy wants us to do this so badly? What nightmare would make him think we need to do Secret Santa?"

Brooke thought for a minute, rubbing his red nose (even though he doesn't have- yeah I know).

"Perhaps he just wants to do something fun to get his mind off of the nightmare," He suggested.

"Maybe," Usopp said sceptically. "Anyway, you always play that song- Bink's Sake. It's a nice song, but don't you know any others?"

Brooke didn't take the question offensively at all.

"I have many other songs in my room. Sometimes, I even write my own songs. The only problem is that it's hard to buy staffed paper at the towns we stop by, so I draw my own staff paper." He chuckled.

"I see," Usopp said, looking up in thought. "This morning's a quiet one. Maybe everyone's thinking about their Secret Santa presents. Well except Luffy. Sanji's been kicking him out of the kitchen all morning." Then he frowned as he thought about it more. "Actually, when I tried to check on breakfast earlier, he wouldn't let me in either."

"Perhaps he's preparing his present in there," Brooke offered, a more convincing suggestion than his last one. "Maybe it's Luffy-san's."

"Yeah, but it's natural that Sanji would make food for his Secret Santa," Usopp said, glancing over at the kitchen door. "At least we know he's not making anything for Franky."

The two of them laughed a little bit, not completely jokingly at their speculation.

Robin sat in in her study, flipping through a book. She was more distracted than usual, with the thought of the gift in her mind. More than once on the deck two hours ago, she was tempted to eavesdrop on conversations to figure out who had who. However, she decided in the end that just this one time, for Luffy's sake, she wouldn't cheat.

But what to make for her Secret Santa? The idea of a prank present popped up in her head and she let herself smile at it before pushing it aside.

She tapped her pen into the quietness of the room. Oddly, she felt as if it were quieter than usual. Luffy's voice was still there on the deck. So was Nami's and Usopp's and Brooke's and Chopper shouting about something. Then she realized what it was. Forty-five minutes ago Zoro had went upstairs to train, and since her study was one thick floor below his training room, a repetitive creaking could be vaguely heard whenever he did so.

The sounds of his training had stopped thirty minutes ago, and he hadn't taken any stairs up to the lookout or down to the deck.

Resisting the urge to slip an eye in the room and see what kind of present he might be making, she continued pondering when she heard Nami coming up the stairs.

Her door flew open and the red-headed navigator burst into the room.

"Nami," Robin commented rather passively as Nami fought to catch her breath.

"Robin, I think I know why Luffy wants us to do this," She panted, closing the door.

"Why?"

"Think about it," Nami said, settling into a chair next to Robin. She had almost recovered her breath now. "Luffy was acting strange yesterday night when he was telling us his idea. Also! Remember when he jumped out of bed! At first he looked frozen, then he just leaped off his hammock and put on that happy-mask! Now in the morning, he's doing just fine!"

"Are you suggesting that there was an immediate danger he was protecting us from after he woke up, and now he's not worried about it anymore?" Robin asked, finding what the navigator said useful information.

"Yeah, you get it right Robin?" Nami said in an excited flurry, getting a little too worked up in Robin's opinion. "Maybe someone with some telepathic powers threatened Luffy in his dream to force us to do Secret Santa, and when he fell asleep again, the person told him he wasn't going to hurt us anymore so he's calm again!"

Yeah, a little too worked up.

"The things that don't make sense are: why someone would want us to do Secret Santa, and why that person would be able to communicate to Luffy in his dream. Why did he wake up screaming? Only something tragic happening in his dream could have caused Luffy to scream," Robin thought aloud. "Why did Luffy believe the person in his dream?"

But as she thought about it and talked it out with Nami, things were starting to clear up. Especially after Luffy's visit to her room an hour later.


	3. Chopper's Gift and Luffy Lying!

**Chopper's Gift and... Luffy Lying?**

A few minutes before Nami visited Robin in her room...

There was a knock at the medical room and Chopper hastily stuffed his present into a shelf.

"Come in!" He shouted.

To his surprise, Franky opened the door and stepped inside.

"Oh Franky!" Chopper said, hopping down from the table. "Do you need anything?"

"Well..." Franky said, scratching his head. "Sort of."

Suspicion immediately filled the little racoon's head. _I knew it. Franky has me for Secret Santa! _He thought.

Chopper laughed and scratched his own head. Should he hint at what he wanted?

"Ask whatever you want!" He beamed. "By the way, for Secret Santa I want-"

"How does scar tissue form in humans?"

The shocked Chopper could only hang his head in disappointment.

"What are you getting so upset about?" Franky asked rhetorically. "Anyway, I need to know so I can make some SUPERR adjustments to my SUPERR design."

Chopper's head shot back up.

"What are you making?" He prodded.

"I can't tell you," Franky grinned, leaning back and crossing his arms. "But if you could show it to me in a book or something..."

"Sure, sure," Chopper said waddling over to his bookshelf, completely recovered from before. "Here's something really good-"

He realized too late that his present was right before Franky's eyes. Before he could stop him, he picked one up and put it to the light.

"Hey this isn't too bad!" He commented.

"No, no! Put it back! Put it back!" Chopper insisted, jumping up and down. "Don't tell anybody!"

Franky put it back, but not without gleaming, mischievous eyes.

"So? Who's is it? Is it Luffy's?" The cyborg asked.

Chopper sighed in relief.

"No it's not," He declared triumphically.

"Is it Sanji's?"

"That's not fair! You only get one guess!" Chopper protested. "Here's the book! Get out!"

"See you later Choppy!" Franky teased.

A book was slammed in his face before he closed the door.

An hour later in Robin's study...

Her creative thoughts finally flowing properly, Robin was sketching something out for her Secret Santa when the door creaked open without warning.

She casually slipped the sketch under a stack of papers as Luffy, seemingly his old happy self, walked into the room.

"Hello Luffy," Robin greeted.

"Hey Robin," Luffy smiled. He abruptly sat down on the floor. "Nami came up here to see you right?"

With a dark supposition, Robin said that Nami came up and they had talked about archeology. She already had an idea of what he was going to say.

"Really? That's good because I _really _don't want anyone cheating," Luffy grinned, swaying in his cross-legged position.

Again. There was the feeling that he was hiding something from her. It was unnervingly unlike Luffy to make this kind of passive threat. If that's what he meant it as.

She laughed.

"It's alright Luffy, I won't cheat. You can trust me."

"OK thanks," He laughed. Almost nervously. "I really think everyone should concentrate on making their presents now. So all the presents can be good and everyone can be happy."

"I understand," Robin nodded. Again with the passive threats. Maybe she should just use the most direct way...

"Luffy, is there anything wrong?" Robin asked, showing as much concern as she could on her face.

It threw him off a little bit but he feigned innocent confusion.

"I'm fine. There's nothing to worry about. Why?"

"Everyone is really worried about you after you woke up with a nightmare this morning," Robin pressed.

But the wall was already back up. Without hesitation, he replied,

"Oh... Sorry for worrying you guys, but it really was nothing. I had a dream that we got stuck on an abandoned island and Sanji turned into a bad cook."

Robin had to laugh a little at _that. _Luffy laughed back, genuinely this time, at his own joke. Then the short moment was over and Luffy stood up again, a grin drawn on his face.

"I'm gonna check on Chopper now. See ya later Robin!"

Once he was out the door, Robin didn't like the feeling that Luffy was going around telling everybody to stay in their rooms. It supported the theory she had created after her talks with Nami though...

Meanwhile…

Franky stared at the draft he had written out for his present.

"Now that I think about it…" He mumbled to himself.

He crossed out his plans and chuckled to himself as he conjured up a different one. This one was a much better idea. Since _he _was the one making this present, he didn't need to get out of his room to make it. But maybe he needed to check one small thing outside.

He had drawn for ten minutes when he put down his pencil and stood up from the desk. He opened the door and took a left down the hall, then out into the main deck. Barely a moment before Franky reached the deck, Luffy came down the opposite end of the hall. And failing to notice Franky, he clopped down the corridor and helped himself into Franky's room.


	4. Luffy's Conversation

A/N: I'm relatively new to fanfiction, so as I was publishing the chapters for my stories I didn't realize until an hour ago that the edits I made to the documents didn't transfer to the published version of the chapters. So I'l pile all the past notes I made into this one.

Sorry but I'm not planning on any pairings in this story.

This takes place between the Thriller Bark arc and the Sabaody arc, since I wanted to do this with the whole crew.

Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece since Eiichiro Oda does.

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><p><strong>Luffy's Conversation<strong>

**About an hour and fifteen minutes after breakfast, forty-five minutes before Nami visited Robin...**

Zoro stood at the center of the room, one hand gripping a humongous weight and the other on his hip. He lifted his weight furiously. He was literally very annoyed.

_Of all people I had to get _that _idiot. That damn cook! What am I supposed to make him? A-_

His eyebrows furrowed, he lifted the weight a few more times, trying to think of something he knew how to make.

_A snowman?_

After lifting the weight for fifteen minutes in an annoyed fury, he noticed the rope ladder leading up to his room swaying.

"What do you want Luffy?" He asked when the captain's head appeared at the opening.

"Hey Zoro," Luffy replied lifting himself onto the floor behind the swordsman. "No one's come to your room right?"

_Why would he ask something like that?_

"No."

Luffy laughed and Zoro tilted his head in confusion.

"Well you wouldn't want anyone coming in anyway because you might be working on your present right? You should start working on it, you only have a week."

For some reason, this didn't seem like something Luffy would say.

"I'll work on it later," Zoro replied gruffly. "You didn't come up here just to say that did you Luffy? I'm training right now."

He couldn't turn around and see, but Zoro sensed Luffy getting... darker. That's right, this wasn't something Luffy would say. He clasped the weight tighter in his hands. He didn't like this. He was the one who told the rest of the crew to trust Luffy and wait it out, but now that felt like the wrong thing to do. He needed to figure out what was wrong with Luffy, and so did the rest of the crew.

"Zoro," Luffy said in that solemn, gritty voice he used when he was _serious_ about something. "This is a captain's order. Don't come out of this room until I say so."

The weight went down and shook the room. It didn't move as the narrow-eyed swordsman looked straight ahead of him, his back to his captain. He wasn't smiling.

"Understood," He said.

He waited for Luffy to leave the room.

"I'll explain later," Luffy finally said. And he began to descend the ladder.

Zoro didn't pick up his weights again. _Don't leave this room? What the hell? _He thought angrily. But then Zoro wasn't one to disobey his captain's orders. He sat down on the floor in silent frustration and brainstormed gift ideas in a strangely aggressive way.

**Thirty minutes after breakfast on the main deck of the Thousand Sunny…**

Nami was more than pleased at the results of the Secret Santa drawing. Also, since Luffy was acting normal again, this morning was a good one. She leaned back in her chair and watched her breath frost.

Letting her thoughts wander lazily, she wrapped herself in the icy pleasant-ness of heavy but passive snow. It wasn't long before she got the sudden revelation that led her running down the corridors for Robin's study.

She nearly tripped on some planks randomly sticking out from Franky's door and swore under breath, when she jumped at a voice behind her.

"Namiiiiiiii!"

When she spun around, Luffy was waving and running out to her from the stairs leading to the deck. Her heart skipped a beat or two when the "revelations" flashed into her head.

"Hi Luffy," She tried to greet casually.

"Hey Nami, where're you going?" Luffy grinned. "Robin's room?"

Her heart skipped another two beats. How did he know? Trying desperately, to get away from what she felt would grow too interrogative, she inched backwards and said,

"Yeah, just Secret Santa stuff. I mean… I just wanted to ask for her advice on a gift. I wasn't going to tell her or ask her about anything… or anything."

Luffy seemed to think about this for a while, and Nami watched tensely. Then he looked up.

"OK," He grinned affirmatively.

A little confused, Nami said bye to Luffy and continued on her way to Robin's room.

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><p>By lunchtime, all crew members were stuck in their rooms, unconsciously thinking the same thoughts. Not exactly the same, but general feelings and suspicions were shared. Meanwhile, Luffy went down to the fishtank room, a den den mushi in hand. Luffy was fairly relaxed by now. He had played out everything perfectly, so there really was nothing to worry about. He hadn't been <em>completely <em>lying when he told Robin.

He sat down on the cushioned benches.

"I'm ready," He said into the den den mushi.

"OK. Thanks for everything."

"No, I'm the one in your debt," Luffy smiled.

The opposite line laughed.

"I don't have much time right now, so listen closely. Only let two of your crewmates out- the strongest ones with the hardest spirits. Try to stay as quiet as you can, and remember your role. You're sure the rest of the crew will stay obediently in their rooms right?"

"Yep. Come anytime now."

"Alright, they're coming in three days."

"Got it."

"Call me when it's over."

"Sure."

Click.

Click.

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><p>As I've been writing this and thinking about how to hint at the presents and who has who and whatnot, I realize that it might get confusing with all the loose ends that seem to be created. So I promise that Ill add an extra chapter at the end that'll explain all the loose ends.<p>

Thanks for reading!


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